


These Haunted Machines

by BeforeBabydoll



Category: Ex Machina (2015)
Genre: Blow Jobs, Dominance, Ex Machina - Freeform, F/F, F/M, Mental Coercion, Oral Sex, Rough Sex, Sexual Coercion, Submission, Submissive, nathan bateman - Freeform, oscar isaac - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-02-27 21:06:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13256625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeforeBabydoll/pseuds/BeforeBabydoll
Summary: Lee wakes up in Nathan Bateman's strange subterranean home with no memory of how she got there. She sets out to discover what happened to her, what he wants, and most of all - what she wants.(Alternative Universe story for Ex Machina, Lee, a young woman with severe mental illness submits to an experimental treatment designed by famous BlueBook founder Nathan Bateman. Slow burn F/F and F/M)





	1. Chapter 1 : Session 1

My eyes open. I awake so suddenly, and so crisply that it is almost as if I had not been asleep at all. I cannot remember dreaming, but I know by some internal sense that I had been asleep, and for a long while.  
I sit up in the bed. I am in what appears to be a very simple, but very expensive hotel room. Crumpling the covers in my hand I detect high quality linen. The whole room is bathed in a warm, low glow, emanating from the bedside lamp on the night stand to my right. There is a desk, a chair, and looking to my right I see the partition where the bathroom must be. After all these observations have filtered through I finally make a few far more disquieting ones; There are no windows, there is no luggage of my own that I can see anywhere, and lastly, that I cannot remember a thing.  
Literally. Not even my own name. Sitting frozen on the bed I stare into shiny surface of the wall opposite and just about make out my features. I am female, aged about twenty five perhaps, with blonde hair cropped short into a pixie cut. Moving my hands over my body I note that I am dressed in a white T shirt, and a pair of sleeping shorts. I blink, trying to drag something out of my memory but I find myself groping about in a dark abyss. And then I try to get scared...But I cant. I feel only an odd, bewildering calm.  
There is the sound of a lock disengaging to my left and for the first time my adrenaline kicks back into life. I scrabble out of the bed and find my back flat against the wall furthest from the door that is being pushed open. If there had been anything to hand I would have grasped it as a weapon, but there is nothing.  
A man walks in. The door swings shut behind him. He doesn’t move. For a tense moment we just stare at each other. He is taller than me, evidently very strong. His face is framed by a thick black beard and a pair of square spectacles. He is dressed in a vest and jogging pants. At length he gives a bubble of laughter. My mouth falls open and I feel a burn of anger. I slide to the side and snatch the lamp off the side, pulling the chord out of the wall and plunging the room into an almost darkness, illuminated only by the lights around the door and lightswitch.  
I hear another laugh in the gloom. “Ya gonna hit me with that?” Comes his voice, leaving a deliberate pause before his hand hits the light switch and the room becomes visible again. I notice, to my increasing annoyance, that he is actually very attractive.  
“Maybe. Who the fuck are you?”  
“Nathan. But I think you’ve got a bigger question on your hands, right?” He smiles.  
I tighten my grip on the lamp. Though, now that I look at him in the full light I realise I’d have to get very lucky to take him down. The muscles of his shoulders and arms are thick and toned with hours, years of training. Or so I assume.  
“Did you do something to me?” I utter. He raises his brow and pushes his hands easily into his pockets, strolling around the bed. “Yeah, a whole bunch of stuff actually. But not exactly what you might think.”  
I blink, trying to gain some mental foothold. Nothing. “Why can’t I remember anything?” My voice shakes slightly. He leans against the desk, looking me up and down. “It’s a side effect, mostly. You’ll start to get stuff back soon. Not all of it though, you were specific about that.”  
This plunges me into further confusion. I shake my head. “Are you keeping me here!?” He shakes his head and shrugs. “No.” He replies mildly and gestures to the door. “You’re free to go. I won’t stop you, but do you really wanna do that? I mean, don’t you wanna know what’s happened to you?”  
I weigh this up. As I do so I start to find ‘Nathan’ oddly familiar. Like a face from a dream, or an old memory. “Was I hurt? Is this a hospital?” I question. He kicks open what must be the minibar and pulls out a glass bottle of mineral water. “I’ll tell you what, Lee – that’s your name by the way. Why don’t you put down that lamp, have a drink, and I’ll tell you about it? Hm?”  
He pours two glasses, and holds one out to me. I think about swiping it out of his hand and running for the door. But if he really wanted to stop me I wouldn’t stand a chance. I decide to play along. I let the lamp drop and cautiously reach out for the glass. I take it from him. He smiles at me. “Cheers.” He takes a sip. I follow suit, not taking my eyes off him. Still smiling he pulls a drawer out of the sideboard and retrieves from it a piece of paper and a pencil. “Would you do something for me?” I nod. “Come over here, and write on this paper ‘My name is Lee, I am 24 years old and my favourite colour is blue.’” I laugh. “Seriously?”  
“Seriously, which is all true, by the way.”  
I cross the room and set the glass down. I hurried scrawl what he dictates on the paper and hold it up to him. “There, happy?” He seems thoroughly pleased, and wordlessly reaches into the drawer again. He sets a second piece of paper on the desktop. My eyes drop to it, and a vertiginous feeling comes over me; It’s exactly the same words, in exactly the same handwriting. I drop the paper I’m holding and feel my legs wobble a bit under me. I drop down on the end of the bed and look up at him. He’s smiling at me, still holding his glass.  
“You’re not a prisoner.” He utters in a low, resonant voice that seems both reassuring and terrifying. “You walked through the door all by yourself. But I cant tell you everything, not all of it, not yet. But what you should know is this...” His smile grows until he spreads his hands with glee and laughs. “You’re a fuckin’ work of art.”  
I shake my head slightly. “What are you talking about?” I utter in total confusion. He puts his glass down. “C’mon Lee, let’s take a walk, I’ll tell ya’ about it.” He opens the door and pauses, waiting for me to follow. “Unless you’d rather stay in the dark?” I get up.


	2. Chapter 2 : Session 1

The corridor outside my room is similarly lit, bars of soft light emanating from the floor near the shiny walls. As it closes the door of my room vanishes into a surface of brushed, frosted glass. Again, there are no windows. I turn cautiously to the man leading me and again I get the feeling that I know his face, that I've seen him before but cant place when exactly. “So...If I'm a work of art then who is the artist?” I reply archly. This only makes him laugh again, hooking his thumbs into the pockets of his pants. “Y'know I knew you would ask me that. Right away. You dont waste time.” I frown. “You know me?”  
“Better than anyone.” I laugh. “Well I dont see how that's possible...Given that I'm fairly sure we've never met before today.” He looks at me with a rather pleased smile. “You havent lost any of your sharpness...That's good.” He utters, though more to himself than me, as if he is jotting an observation in a notebook. It irritates me. “Where am I?”  
“Deep underground, far away from everybody.”  
“Accept you?” He nods thoughtfully. “Mostly.”  
This cryptic answer bothers me but before I can so much as open my mouth Nathan swipes his card over a panel, something beeps and a door pops open ajar a little way down the hall from my own. He holds it open for me. I stand still, peering inside cautiously. It does not resemble my room. “You want me to go in there?”  
“You wanna know what's happening right?” I nod. He gestures silently to the open door. I step in, and he shuts the door behind me. I turn on my heel and my hands hit the place where the door has moulded into the smooth wall. I bang in it with the heel of my hand but the noise is absorbed soundlessly. “Motherfucker.” I utter in frustration. Equal parts infuriated, terrified and intrigued by my strange new host.  
I turn back to face an odd corridor; narrow, and seeming to lead into another room but partitioned off by large plates of clear Perspex. I step toward a chair that has been placed purposefully at the end of the Perspex warren and sit down in it cautiously. In front of me there is a round plate in the solid material that looks to allow speech. I peer into the empty room. “Hello?” I call, cautiously. Almost soundlessly someone comes around the corner. I say someone...  
She’s a robot. This truth is completely given away by her translucent plastic body, an intricate and amazing construction of delicate illuminated machinery in the place where the core of her body would be. Her neck, arms and legs are also completely transparent by design, cords and wires and artificial joints completely visible within. I say ‘she’ for it is obvious she is female despite the fact that her upper torso and pelvis are covered in a simple grey mesh, giving away no obvious sexual characteristics. But the shape of her body and the strangely human face are utterly feminine. My mouth opens, shuts, opens again. “Hello?” I say, and ask at the same time.  
She turns toward me, seeming to take my presence in properly, pacing a little closer to the partition. I cannot take my eyes off her, she is incredible. “Hello.” She answers in a soft, human voice. She looks hard at my face. “You’re Lee.” My brow rises, it doesn’t occur to me in the moment that I’m more surprised that she knows my name than by the fact that she’s a machine. “Yeah. You are?”  
“Ava.”  
“Do we know each other Ava?”  
She kneels down in front of the glass. I can hear the faint electronic whine of some mechanism as her joints engage.  
“Nathan has told me about you.”  
“What about me, exactly?”  
“That your name is Lee, you are female, twenty nine years old, that you have some problems.”  
“Problems?”  
“That is what he said.”  
I frown and fold my hands anxiously in my lap. “You’re a...you’re not like me.” I finish weakly. This seems to amuse her. “You mean, you can see I’m a machine?”  
I nod. “Does it bother you?” I think about this. But Ava, like Nathan is disconcertingly...familiar? I have the uneasy sense that I’ve seen her before, that I knew something about her. “Of course it doesn’t bother me.” I finish as kindly as I can. “Why are you here?” Ava cants her head slightly, considering this. “I was made here, by Nathan. I cannot leave. I’m not sure why.” I swallow thickly. “Do you know why I’m here?” I ask.  
“Yes.”  
“Will you tell me?”  
She hesitates. “I will, but I’ve been told giving you too much information too soon could hamper your progress.”  
I feel a jab of frustration. “Well why are we even talking then?”  
“It’s important to break the ice, isn’t it?”  
I sigh. I can’t deny that, especially since my conversation partner is...well, a robot. I knit my fingers together and try to find a way to word my next question without sounding awful.  
“Are you...Are you, real?” I think I see some amusement on her face. “I’m not sure what you mean. I believe I exist, are you real?”  
I laugh. She smiles and I watch the way her eyelids flutter. She’s very beautiful. I shake my head in amused exasperation. “At this point I’m not sure if anything is real. Least of all myself.”  
“You seem real to me.”  
This reply affects me with an odd depth that comes out of nowhere and I look hard at her. “Thank you.” I say, and mean it. She seems to notice something, her gaze flicks to a camera in the top corner of the ceiling and then back to me.  
“You have to go now, but we’ll see each other again.” She smiles, getting to her feet. “It was nice to finally meet you, Lee.” She blinks softly at me and paces away. I get up, looking after her. “Yeah, likewise...” I utter in confusion.  
Retreating back through the warren I find the door slightly ajar and step back out into the corridor. It closes automatically behind me with a click.  
I stand there stupefied for what feels like several minutes, but gradually a sound brings me back to the present, the sound of classical music wafting down the corridor from another room. My feet take me toward it. I find the door and push it open.  
The room inside is elegantly laid out, the entire left wall left as raw as the rock the floors of this house were presumably hewn from. Ahead of me a large canvas with flashes of colour all over it hangs the length of the room. Nathan is reclining on the sofa with a beer bottle in his hand. Seeing me he hits a button on the coffee table and drops the room into silence. He gives me that smug smile.  
“So, what did you think of Ava?”  
I stand cautiously near the doorway. “She’s a robot.” I reply archly, not wanting to give him anything. “No shit, what else?” I grit my teeth behind my lips. “She...Knows things about me. What did you tell her?”  
“I told her why you’re here.”  
“Then would somebody please just fucking tell me, you know - me!?” The anger creeps out of me and ends with me standing over the man on the sofa. He regards me with wide eyes as I approach, but its excitement – not fear. That makes it worse.  
“If I told you everything now, it wouldn’t help you. Some shit you have to work out on your own. Which, by the way, you completely agreed to before you got here.” He scoots up in his seat and places the bottle on the table. “Tell me what you think of Ava.” He presses. I clench and unclench my fists. “She’s amazing.” I answer honestly.  
He smiles. “That’s what I was hoping you’d say.” I shake my head at him. “I’m done with this.” I turn my back and start to walk away. “Wait.” He calls and I stop dead. I turn back to him. His fingers are fluttering over a thin tablet I hadn’t noticed lying on the coffee table. Something that looks like a beautiful, colourful fluctuating pattern of thousands of lines begins to swirl on it. He stands up and looks down his glasses at me. I swallow hard and hold my ground. “I’ll tell you something about the first time we met.” I answer him with silence. He tucks his hands into his pants pockets and steps close enough to me that I can smell the beer on his breath. “The first time we met, you asked if you could suck my cock. Actually, you kinda begged for it.” He lilts smoothly.  
I stare back at him, my eyes widening with fury. But a thrill of excitement runs the length of my body and settles as a deep, hot burn in my pelvis. On the table next to him I notice the pattern change hue to deep red and brown hues. A long, horribly pregnant moment passes before I can force anymore words passed my lips. “...And did I?” I hiss. He laughs smugly, bringing one hand up to push his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose. He glances at the tablet, then back at me. He bites his lip as he smiles. “The best thing is, I know you’d just love to know.” He whispers, satisfied.  
I nearly hit him, but settle for turning on my heel and striding out of the room. I can feel him smiling at my back. “I’ll have your dinner sent to your room!” He calls, barely keeping the laugh out of his voice.


	3. Chapter 3 : Session 1

I can feel my face burning as I walk away from the door. The music begins blaring obnoxiously again. It had to be a lie. It had to be. I repeat to myself over and over as I stride back to my room. But only because I have the deep and unpleasant feeling that it might not be. Did I want that? No. I shut the question down before another thought. It was manipulation, plain and simple.  
I open my door and try frustratingly to slam it and fail; it slides to a sedate close behind me. I stand there for a second feeling stupid before I fling myself on the bed and coil up, knitting my hands into my hair. That girl that...Thing. What was she? She seemed exactly like a person, but how could she be? She was made of metal and plastic. It occurs to me what a shallow definition that is, are all things ‘human’ simply because they are made of what, organic matter? As I run my hands through my hair something stands out. I freeze in fear for a second or two before I scrabble to my feet and run to the bathroom. The lights come on automatically and I lean close to the mirror, parting my hair desperately. As squint I can just about make out a hairline incision in the skin, a wound that looks like it’s been healed for weeks, maybe longer. But it leaves the slightest raised line running from the back of my ear to the very top of my head. I stagger away from the mirror and my back hits the bathroom wall, winding me slightly. I squeeze my eyes shut.  
I’m underground. With a man I recognise, with a robot, and I don’t remember how I got here. And I think he’s done something to me. I feel sick, but it passes quickly and I straighten up. I look at myself hard in the mirror. “Get it the fuck together Lee.” I curse at myself and breathe steadily.  
I hear the door open and my anger’s ready for him. “Ok, what the fu...” The words drop out of my mouth. A statuesque woman with dark hair, dressed in a short white tunic is placing a tray on the desk; it looks like it has food on it. I approach her until I am very close but she does not seem bothered by me. “Who are you?” I ask. She stares at me blankly. She is very beautiful. I sigh. “Would you at least tell me your name?” Again, a blank look. She reaches out for my arm, at first I instinctively recoil but she persists and I give over. She holds my forearm very gently in her long fingers and almost as if she were playing a flute taps a short but complex sequence on my underarm with her fingertips. She lets my arm go, looks at me again, and then leaves. I gaze at the closed door. It feels like a long while before I collapse back on the bed coiled up in frustration.  
Maybe I fell asleep but eventually my eyes open and the smell of the food is an overpowering draw. I get up and look at the tray. It’s soup. I place my hand at the side of the bowl. Still just about warm, I couldn’t have been asleep for long. I eat everything on the tray, even though I’m not sure what some of it is, seems to be some kind of sushi. Begrudgingly I feel better for it.  
When I open the door to the corridor it’s completely quiet outside. The door to Ava’s bedroom is ajar, so I step inside. I walk to chair and sit down. Just as I sit I see her coming around the corner. “Hi.” I say awkwardly. “Hello.” She replies with a searching look. “You’re upset about something.” She observes. “What makes you say that?”  
“Your tone of voice, the way you’re clenching your hands like that. You look frustrated.” I raise an eyebrow, actually very impressed. “Well, you’re not wrong.” I utter resignedly. “So you came to see me?” I shrug. “I was just wandering really.” There is the tiniest fluctuation in her brow. “Have you been talking to Nathan?”  
“If you can call it that...”  
“What did he tell you?” I give the robotic woman a withered glance and wonder if she has any conception of human sexuality. “I’m fairly sure you don’t want to know.” She seems to scan me again. “I’m curious.” She kneels on the floor in front of me. We are so close, if the glass were not there I would have been able to reach out and touch her face. If she is not a person, then she is the most beautiful object I have ever seen. But that remains to be seen. “Do you, feel...Lust?” She smiles, she seems to blush even though the pigment of her synthetic skin does not change colour. “You mean sexual attraction? Yes. I have the same feelings that you do.” She holds my gaze, and now I try to decode her. “Do you like girls?”  
“I’m not sure. You’re the first one I’ve ever met.” We both laugh. “I hope I’m likable.” I utter half to myself, though I can feel myself growing warm. “Do you like girls?” She asks, quite suddenly and I am caught a little off guard. “I, yes. I like both men and women.”  
“You are...Bisexual?”  
“Yes.”  
“Do you like Nathan?” The smile drops from my face. I become once again sharply aware of the cameras trained on the both of us. “I...Don’t know him.”  
“He knows you.” My expression becomes a glare. “How does he know me?”  
“He helped you, by bringing you here.” I frown. “Do you...Really believe that?” She blinks. “Yes, before...Before you were, different.” My hands clasp in my lap again. “You’re blushing.” She says. I get up, suddenly uncomfortable. She stands with that whirring noise. “Will you come back? Later?” I turn and look over my shoulder at her. There is something about her, I can’t get over it. “Sure.” I reply in what I hope is a dismissive tone, and leave the room. I close the door behind me.  
Outside, I decide I’m going to take things into my own hands. I walk through the compound, trying every door until I push one open. It’s a spacious lounge that leads into an open plan kitchen, furnished in a minimal but elegant style. I blink a little because the far wall is made of plate glass and leads onto a veranda. It’s daylight outside. I’m stunned because I can’t remember the last time I saw daylight. Nathan takes advantage of this. I don’t see him for a moment where he is lying flat on one of the sofas. “Been chatting with Ava again?” His voice comes. My anger comes back to me and I walk around to face him, the tablet is in his lap, there is a glass of wine on the nearby coffee table. “I get the feeling she likes you.” He gives me that smug smile. I cross my arms, standing upright near the coffee table. “She said you brought me here, that you changed me? What did you change?” He sits up a little, placing the tablet on the glass table with a careless clatter. He laces the fingers of his big hands together where he sits and gives me a totally deadpan look, the light catching in his glasses slightly. “You really wanna know?”  
“Yes!” He shrugs with one shoulder. “Ok, I’ll show you right now, if that’s what you want...Lee.” I move between the sofa and the coffee table. My eyes move over him, in his dark slacks I think I make out a bulge. I feel ambivalent, but the strands of colour on the screen on the coffee table spring into life, deep blues and bright reds. My eyes flick back to him. Now there’s no doubt about his arousal. I swallow thickly and feel myself blush. He’s smiling at me now, but it’s a softer expression, less self satisfied. He slides up on the couch until he’s sitting upright. “Come sit down.” He says softly, but there’s firmness in it which combined with the look on his face makes me do it. I sit side on to him, looking away. He reaches out and presses his palm and fingers gently to the side of my face. I shut my eyes. The sensation is sweet to me. His large thumb brushes down, over my lips and I gasp. He freezes. Opening my eyes I see a strand of yellow now running through the red swirls on the tablet. “Open your mouth.” He whispers. He’s sitting right next to me, I can feel the heat of him. I can feel his breath on my ear. I shut my eyes and open my mouth. He runs his thumb along my bottom lip and I feel a cascade of sensation. Something about it feels...New. I breathe deeply. His thumb hooks over my lip, into my mouth, and without thinking my lips close around it and my tongue moves up to swirl around it. It feels wonderful. He pushes a little further until it is as deep in my mouth as he can reach, his fingertips cupping around my cheek. My heart flutters and like a spell shattering I open my mouth, gasp, and lean away. Looking away from him on the other side of the sofa. My mouth is still scintillating. I chew my lip.  
“You didn’t.” The words break the silence and I look over my shoulder at him. He wets his lips. “To answer your question, from earlier...You didn’t.” He oils. The hand that had been in my mouth grasps at his hard dick through the fabric of his sweats. “...But you could now.”


	4. Chapter 4 : Session 2

I scoff at him and get up, turning my back on him. My underwear is soaked through with my own arousal. I turn and look back at him, propped up at ease on the sofa, one leg bent, his right hand grasping the thick lump in the front of his slacks. “Is that why I’m here? You just need someone to suck your cock?” He gives a snort, he lets go and takes a deep breath, parting his hands like he’s about to explain something. “Can you honestly stand there and tell me, that you don’t want that? And don’t waste my fucking time and lie because I’ll know.” He replies levelly, looking through the top of his glasses at me. I chew my lip involuntarily, but hold my ground. “Even if I did want that...Why would I do it? I don’t know who you are, and as far as I can tell you god damned kidnapped me! You did something to me!” My voice trembles a little as the last words come out. I’m ready to take an expensive looking vase off a nearby shelf and throw it when he hops to his feet and goes to leave the room. “C’mon, I’m gonna show you something.” He calls without turning. I glare at his retreating back before sighing and moving to follow him. He moves down the corridor and takes a right. Looking around I see he’s led me into an office. On the desk there are three computer monitors, and the wall behind the desk is a complex mosaic of post it notes all written out in small, hard to make out hand writing. “Jesus...Seems you’ve got a system.” I utter dryly. He drops into the swivel chair and taps something on the keyboard. “Have a seat.” He motions to the long couch in the middle of the room. He seems to find what he’s looking for and hits enter on the keyboard, pushing the chair back a little so I can see the centre screen. He watches with his chin resting in his thumb and forefinger, elbow on the desk.  
A room appears on the screen, as if it’s being filmed from the corner in the ceiling. It’s bare, only a simple bed and wash basin are visible. Focusing I see that the person sitting on the bed is me. Someone walks into frame, placing a chair a few feet from the bed and sitting down. It’s Nathan. “Do you remember who I am?” He asks. I look at him, knees coiled to my chest. “Yes, you’re Nathan.”  
“Is it ok, me being here?”  
“Yeah.” He flips open his notebook. I blink, hardly able to believe what I’m seeing. But the person on the bed is undeniably myself. “Are the meds making you tired?” I nod wearily. “But, you’re eating?” Another nod. “You don’t enjoy eating do you?” He presses. “I used to, but no. Not anymore.”  
“Why?”  
“I’m afraid.” He nods. “Can you tell me the last thing you enjoyed eating, that you can remember?” I seem to consider this a moment. “Five, no...Six years ago. I went to Paris with my friend, Emma. We went to a gelato parlour. I bought a cone of mango and cream gelato.” I pause mid sentence, I see my eyelids flutter, my mouth seems to open as if I can taste it. As I watch my own face my mouth waters, I can taste mango in my mouth. The woman on the bed in the video throws her head back, banging it on the wall with tears streaming down her face. “Do you just come here to taunt me?” She breathes in a voice full of pain. “No, I want to help you Lea. You want to get better right?”  
“I wish I was dead.”  
“Wouldn’t you rather have a mouthful of mango gelato?” I cry out audibly, then strangle my sob into nothing in my throat, fixing the man in the chair with a burning glare. “That person is dead.” I hiss. He stares back at me. “I don’t think she is.”  
“You’re not a doctor are you?”  
“What makes you say that?”  
“I’ve never seen you before...Doctors don’t talk like you do, they don’t put cameras in my room, they also don’t seem so comfortable when I tell them I wish I could fill my throat with their dicks cause it’s been so long since I’ve felt anything.”   
“Have you said that to any other doctors, nurses?”  
“No.”  
“Why.”  
“Cause the only person remotely attractive in this shit hole is my consultant psych...But she’s straight, and she’d probably just up my Olanzapine.” Nathan laughs softly at this, jotting something down.  
Nathan reaches out and hits a key with his forefinger. The screen goes black. I still stare at it, but slowly my eyeline slides sideways to Nathan, who is now looking at me, legs open slightly, fingers drumming on his knees. I cant read his expression and it’s not a smile. “When was that?” I whisper. “About a month ago.” He answers, shrugging one shoulder. “Give or take.” I feel bone achingly numb, and dizzyingly disorientated. I put my face in my hands. “What was wrong with me...Why was I in a hospital?” I ask and grasp desperately in my own mind, finding nothing. “You were ill.”  
“With what!?”  
“I cant tell you that, not yet.” My head snaps up and I glare at him. “You stuck your thumb in my fucking mouth!”  
“I did, and you loved it.” I open my mouth but he raises his voice over me. “Do not fucking deny it! You were dripping for it!” I shut my mouth. “Fine.” I utter, shrugging. “I was. I was dripping for it.” He bites his lip. My eyes sharpen a little at him and my lips quirk into a smile. “...But you were too.” His tongue lingers at the corner of his mouth for a second. “Yeah well I’m not the one who’s in denial here.”  
Nathan gets up, his chair twisting. “Anyway, I see you met Kyoko. I had her fix something special for you.” He opens the door. “It’s in the kitchen for you.” I follow him back through the hall, down to the lounge, leaving him behind in the living room I pass through to the open plan kitchen. I stop on the spot, my mouth dropping open.   
Sitting on the dining room table is a glass sundae dish with four large scoops of icecream artfully stacked and drizzled with cream. I can smell the mango from six feet away. My mouth waters. Everything in me waters with desire. I approach it, part of me wondering if I’m dreaming. It’s like I haven’t wanted something like that for longer than I can remember. I reach down and pick the round dish off the table with one hand, cupping it, grasping the spoon with the other. Back in the lounge Nathan has just cracked the top off a beer; he tosses the bottle opener to one side. I sit down on the sofa opposite him, sink the spoon into the top scoop and only look over at him when the spoon is right in my mouth. The taste is divine. He looks over at me and raises the bottle, smiling. “Cheers.”


	5. Chapter 5 : Session 2

I eat the whole dish of icecream, slowly. I take one bite at a time and savour it. Nathan sips his beer and watches me intently. I ignore him as best I can, but I can feel his eyes on me. Part of me likes it; I can tell what he’s thinking. When I’m done, I set the spoon carefully in the dish and sit up. “I’ll have to thank Kiyoko.” I comment, as if nothing strange is happening. Nathan sits up a little, laying one arm along the back of the sofa. “I wouldn’t waste your time if I were you.” I scowl at him. “The degree to which I think you are an asshole just increased greatly...” I lilt with distaste. He shakes his head. “She doesn’t speak English, not a word.”  
“Then what language does she speak?”  
“She doesn’t speak any language.” I frown. “You mean she’s mute?” Nathan raises his brow just a little. “Yeah you could describe it like that...”  
I get up and walk over to the plate glass that makes up the far wall. Beyond it I can make out the steep side of a verdant green hill, a dusting of snow visible far away. It’s quite beautiful. I place my hand against the glass. It’s so thick I could probably throw a chair at it full force and it wouldn’t so much as chip. “Are you going to let me out?” I ask without turning. “Eventually.” I hear him purr in a tipsy voice. “When you’re ready.” I turn to him. “And when will that be?” I utter. He just stares at me drunkenly and takes another pull on the bottle. I glare at him. “When!?” I press the word heavily. “I told you when you’re fuckin’ ready? Ok? What more do you want from me?” He snaps back with irritation. He slams the beer bottle down on the table and sits up. “Y’know what fuck it...”  
He leans forward over the tablet and his fingers flutter over it. I watch him with a frown. “What are you doing?” I ask. He ignores me. He’s looking at a complex diagram of colourful points, he’s tapping each of them and pulling up a menu, his fingers working fast. “What’re yo...” The last word falls out of my mouth. I feel a lightning bolt of hot fear run the length of my body. I slump against the glass, my vision blurring. “What...” I whisper the word in terror. Suddenly the mango remaining on my tongue tastes like the worst poison. Looking at my hands I can see them swarming with bacteria, they are everywhere. On my hands, my face, in my clothes, my hair. And they are all going to kill me. I can feel the sweat forming on my skin, soaking into my clothes. Lifting my head I look over at Nathan. He’s watching me with a smile. “Dude...You look like shit.” He laughs. He’s half drunk. “You not feelin so good, huh?” I grit my teeth. “What...What did you just do? Did you poison me!?” I rasp, curling up into a ball. He gets to his feet, carrying the tablet and strolls lazily over to where I’m hunched on the floor. “Do you want me to make it stop?” I am bewildered by the question. “How...What!” I babble. “I SAID, do you want me to make it stop!” He yells the words again slowly, leaning down to look at me like I’m a moron. Not knowing what else to do I nod frantically. “Say it!” He orders. Everything is so bright and so loud I can barely stand it, I can feel bacteria on my tongue, lining my oesophagus. “Make it stop!” I scream. And squeeze my eyes shut. About ten seconds later I feel the most bizarre sensation; it’s like every muscle, every fibre and nerve in my body had been pulled taught, and suddenly released. I slump to the floor taking gasps of air as if I had been drowning. I can’t feel the bacteria on my skin anymore, and the mango after taste in my mouth is simple and sweet. My brain has gone from a din of terror to a blessed numbness. When I open my eyes I see Nathan looking down at me with pleased expression. He pushes his glasses up his nose. “Better?” He asks. I can only gasp, and nod. He gives a delighted laugh and walks away from me, back t the sofa. I don’t know how long I lay there, but when I get up it’s a little darker outside, and Nathan is gone. I try to make sense of what’s happened, but fail. My feet carry me back through the lounge. I notice Kyoko in the kitchen preparing food, I look over at her, but she doesn’t seem to notice me. In the corridor I notice the door to Nathan’s study is open. I walk through it.  
He’s sitting at his desk, shirtless and dressed only in his underwear, occupied by the screen in front of him. He does not acknowledge my presence. I lean against the wall and my eyes rove over his bare back and shoulders, hungrily. I watch his forearms and my tongue flicks out over my lips. It only now occurs to me how blunted I feel. He turns in his chair to look at me and I cant deny it, my mouth waters at the thought of him in my mouth. I sigh. “You’re right, I do want it.”  
“Want what?” He utters. He’s going to make me say it. He’s got his hands resting on his spread knees. I answer the question by dropping to my knees and crawling on hands and knees toward him. He looks down, watching me. When I am between his legs I reach up and run my hand over the shape of his soft dick in his underwear. Suddenly he snatches my wrist and I wince. But he doesn’t say anything, he just stares at me, and reaching down with his other hand frees his prick from his underwear. I give a little gasp that elicits the tiniest smirk from him. “Please...” I whisper. He gives me a shove back and I fall on my elbows. He’s got the tablet in his hands again. “If we’re gonna do this, we might as well see how well this works...” He comments, looking at something on the screen intently. Before I can even question him I feel my heartbeat quicken, my cunt begins to throb almost painfully with yearning and I drop flat onto my back, arching it upward as little waves of anticipation and pleasure wash over me. “Fuck.” I mutter under my breath. Nathan is on top of me so suddenly it knocks the air out of my chest. He’s staring at me, he’s taken his glasses off and I can see something predatory and hot in his expression. “I’m gonna fuck you now, fuck I’m gonna fucking destroy you and you’re gonna love it. You understand me?” He utters. He pulls my shorts and panties down roughly, half tearing them as he does so. My cunt is now so wet I ache with desire, it fills me up, it’s all I can think about. “Yes.” I reply. He grabs my wrists and pins them down on either side of my head in his large hands. He must have a big cock because even as he pushes the tip into my dripping cunt I feel myself stretch wide and gasp, bucking my hips up desperately, trying to get deeper. He pulls out and slaps me hard across the face, turning my face and making my ear ring. “I said...” He whispers in my ringing ear. “I’m gonna fuck YOU.” Even the slap feels pleasurable in the wake of its sting. I nod, gazing up into his brown eyes. He pushes into me again just a little and I whimper, chewing my lip to stop myself from rising to him. He pulls out, and pushes in again a little deeper. Denying me his full length. Already I feel a climax building. Nathan grunts as he pulls out, flexing his thick neck backward, seeming to relish every inch. Suddenly, he plunges into me with his full length a string of expletive falling from his mouth. He fucks me so hard and so fast that I feel pain in my hips and pelvis with each impact, but it still can’t outweigh the pleasure, feeling him fill my dripping sex, feeling him stretch me open. I open my mouth and whimper gazing up at him. A drop of sweat drops from his bearded face onto mine. “Fuck...Fuck it’s been so long since I felt real pussy.” A terse laugh. “It’s fuckin’ awesome...” He leans close to my ear. “The fact that it’s yours just makes it better.” He hisses with relish and ploughs into me. “Cum. Now.” He barks. It’s not a hard demand to meet. My body convulses in spasms and the muscles of my core clench as the climax grips me. My eyes widen. “Holy shit. Holy shit!” He breathes and I watch his face, his eyes widen before squeezing shut, his teeth clenched. “Ahhhh! Fuuuck.” He thrusts a little slower as he cums and the waves keep washing over me. I feel a dribble of his semen squeeze out of me and drip down my ass onto the floor. He gasps, getting his breath before he pulls out of me and stands up. He picks up his underwear and wipes the cum from his still engorged cock. All I can do is lay there, cunt throbbing. “Good shit huh?” He utters, grinning. “Bet you’re still feelin’ my dick.” He’s right. I reach down and press a finger into my cum filled slit. Just the tiniest touch, and another orgasm crashes down on me. Nathan watches me with a smug smile as my body writhes on the carpet. “Fuck, man.” He rubs a hand over his cropped hair and pushes his glasses back onto his face. “Tell ya’ what, how about you stay right there...I’ll fuck you again after I’ve had a beer.”


	6. Chapter 6 : Session 2

When I wake up I can feel myself being carried. I’m drowsy and at first I assume it’s Nathan but turning my head I look into the serene face of Kyoko. I frown, surprised that she can actually lift me, she’s very tall and athletic but she moves with such ease in her posture you’d think I weighed nothing. I shut my eyes again and resting my head against her chest, I fall unconscious.  
I come too again to the pleasant sensation of being immersed in hot water. I sigh and blink myself away. I’m in a large, sunken stone bath tub. It’s not my room, mine only has a shower. Slowly I feel my senses coming back to me. Kyoko is holding my hand gently and wiping my arm and shoulder down with a hot flannel. I feel suddenly uncomfortable, not because I’m naked but because I’m actually being bathed. I carefully pull my arm away with a wince. “Thanks, but...I can take a bath myself.” I utter, trying not to sound unkind. I hold out my hand and she hands me the cloth, but she doesn’t leave, she just kneels quietly beside the tub, like she’s being told what to do.  
I start to scrub my skin down. The ache in my bones reminds me of previous events, how Nathan and I had had sex on the floor of his office. How I had been so desperate for it. How good it had felt despite how much it hurt. This is very confusing. I frown and look at Kyoko. “Nathan says you can’t speak. That you’re mute. Is there a reason for that?” She turns her face to look at me but says nothing; I sigh and take hold of her wrist. “Do you know about Ava?” At this word Kyoko pauses a moment and looks at me. I see recognition in her eyes. I grasp this. “Ava? You know Ava?” With her free hand Kyoko reaches across and delicately, finding a seam on her skin that had been invisible, peels a layer of synthetic flesh away to reveal a few inches of the underlying metallic structure.  
I freeze, wide eyed. Of course. It was obvious when I actually thought about it. If Nathan was capable of building one creature like Ava he was capable of building others, and why risk introducing a real human into the equation...Then again, he had introduced me. I stare up at Kyoko and reach over, pushing the flesh back into place as if I were stemming the blood from a wound. I cant read her, but something about this action triggers a change in her behaviour and she pulls her white dress off over her head, she is naked underneath. “What’re you doing?” I ask nervously as the beautiful, statuesque woman climbs into the tub at the other end. She is running her soft hands over my legs and the sensation is wonderful, but still I shake my head. “Please, Kyoko you don’t have to do this...” The words drop out of my mouth as her fingers slide in between my legs. I grasp the sides of the bath. It feels different to what happened in Nathan’s office, something about this feels more real. I watch her face as her hands and eyes explore my body, she is fascinated by me. My hand rises out of the hot water to cup her face and she looks at me. My other hand pulls the pin out of her hair, letting it fall in a straight dark curtain around her face. “Have you ever touched a woman before?” I know she cannot understand me, but she seems to be trying to interpret my body language because she leans forward and places a wet kiss to my lips. I don’t resist. She is soft and slow and gentle and I cant push her away. Her fingers slide inside me and stroke gently against my punished internal walls. I sigh, leaning fully back.  
Her own sex rubs against my thigh as she pushes against me and my hand knits into her straight hair. An idea occurs to me. “...Ava.” I whisper in her ear. Her fingers move faster, her thumb alighting on my clit. I sigh. “Ava, Ava, Ava...” I whisper again and again with her face buried in my neck and after a minute or two something seems to seize her. Her body freezes and spasms slightly, rubbing hard against me. It might have been an orgasm but it’s impossible to tell, she makes no noise. The robotic woman sits upright in the bath and continues to bathe me as if nothing had happened. I don’t stop her, I just lay there wondering.


	7. Chapter 7 : Session 3

After she is done helping me with the bath Kyoko gets out and stands to one side, as still as a statue, holding a towel for me. When I take it from her I say thank you but she doesn’t seem to understand. Wrapping myself in the soft white fabric I walk through the large suite into a master bedroom. This is Nathan’s room. It doesn’t even really require a guess. The mirrored fronts of five tall wardrobes reflect the large bed. A painting of a woman in a white dress that looks like a Klimt hangings on one wall in the low ambient light, I move close to it. It isn’t a print, it’s the real thing. At first I’m amazed, but then I think again and in fact, I’d be surprised were it anything but the original.  
I step back and catch sight of myself in one of the long mirrors. I let the towel fall to the floor and I look at my naked body. My hands slide down over my torso and come to rest on the skin between my navel and pubic mound. I am in a state of relative calm until the memories finally filter through, like grains of sand falling through an hourglass. My eyes widen. I just had unprotected sex with a man, and I’d been off the pill for years. I start to tremble and sit back on the bed, my hands clutching my belly. I feel sick. How could I not have thought of this until now? Why didn’t I think of it in the moment? How could I have forgotten? A familiar lilting voice that seems to read my mind comes lilting from the doorway. I turn my head sharply.  
“You aren’t going to get pregnant.”  
I glare at Nathan. I think I hate him more in this moment than any so far. “You seem very sure of that.” I utter with disgust. “I am sure.” He replies smoothly, and with no regard for my discomfort slumps down on the bed and stretches out. “I gave you a depot injection two weeks ago.”  
“You did what!?”  
“I said I gave you a contraceptive injection two weeks ago, it’s good for a month. But you can go right on ahead and take the morning after pill I had Kyoko leave in your room if you don’t trust me.”  
I get to my feet, the mirrors reflecting my furious naked form from all sides. “You’ve been planning this the whole time? You’re a real piece of shit, you know that?”  
Arms folded above his head he manages a shrug. “I never said I wasn’t. But you wanted it even more than I did.”  
“Because you did something to me you twisted fuck!”  
He is silent a moment. He props himself up on one elbow and turns to me, not even bothering to try to hide the way his eyes run over me. “Lee can you give me the definition of a lobotomy?” The question is bizarre, it stuns me. I frown at him. “Of course I can.” He opens his hand toward me, encouraging me to go on. I watch him sharply as I speak. “First observed in humans by Egaz Moniz in 1935, a lobotomy is the separation of the frontal lobes from the rest of the brain via surgical cuts made in the side of the head, or via the orbit of the eye. It used to be used to treat all kinds of medically refractory psychiatric conditions, but it was nothing but a barbaric mutilation...Why?” I forget that I am naked. This line of questioning is far more unnerving. He seems satisfied. “It’s good that your recall is still so intact.”  
“..Why should it not be?” I am trembling now, and the thin scar on the side of my head seems to burn. “Before you came here, before you got sick you were studying neurology. It’s part of the reason I chose you.” The sick feeling increases. “Did you lobotomise me?” Even from his position on the bed I can see him raise his brow. “Do you think we’d be talking like this if I had?”  
“Would you just give me a straight fucking answer!” I yell, suddenly. It shocks him because he sits up quickly; maybe he remembers the first time we met when I was ready to throw a lamp at his head. He looks me up and down again, and even now I can see him sizing me up like meat. He gets up, ignoring my rage and walks to the door. “You should go talk to Ava, Lee, there’s stuff you’re ready to hear now.”  
“Why don’t you just grow a pair of balls and tell me yourself I instantly snap back.” He pauses, I see his muscular back and shoulders flex a little beneath his vest. “It would mean more coming from her.”


	8. Chapter 8 : Session 3

Ava walks out from behind the pillar, her core seeming to glimmer through her transparent body. Having kicked back the plastic chair I am standing, my hand pressed to the glass, my breath making a little cloud near my mouth.  
“Lee, it’s good to see you again.”  
“Nathan sent me.” The words leave me abruptly, and I see that she can tell something is very wrong right away. She approaches the glass until only it and a foot of air separate us.  
“He did something to me. He said you should tell me.”  
The synthetic woman seems to pause a moment in thought and she almost looks sad, though her expressions are so small and measured it’s hard to tell. “Please.” I hate the pleading tone that leaches into my voice. “Please tell me what he did to me.” She looks at me, properly, full in the face. “Did he touch you?” She asks, simply.   
“We had sex, on the floor of his office. I...I wanted it but he did something to me before we...” I falter. The whole thing feels embarrassing and surreal. “Please.” I repeat. She stares a moment longer. “You were a candidate for a trial.”  
“What kind of trial?”  
“Wet-ware, an implant designed to modulate the neurological activity in patients with medically intractable obsessive compulsive disorders and schizophrenia.”  
I feel sick. “You mean he...Put something in my head?” My voice shakes, but Ava just keeps going.  
“Yes. To be precise a conductive mesh inserted to partition the right frontal lobe and cingulate cortex from the rest of the brain. A current is run through it selectively to elicit specific types of behaviour.”  
My eyes widen. “What types of behaviour?”  
“Revulsion, sexual desire, docility, the aim of the treatment being the erasure of fear symptoms but it is easily applicable to many other impulses.”  
I slide down the glass, my sweaty fingertips making a squealing noise till I slump at the bottom. Ava looks down at me for a moment before she drops to her knees mere inches from me. Tears start to stream unbidden down my face. “How do I...Take it out?” I breathe. She shakes her head. “Removing the mesh would result in massive neurological damage, as would removing its power supply.”  
So that’s why he was asking me. Things begin to slot horribly into place. I shake my head. “Did I really agree to this?” Ava puts her face close to the glass. “Only in so far as a person who has no other options can agree to anything.” I look at her, and an odd thought suddenly occurs to me. “Kyoko’s in love with you, did you know?” Ava blinks. “Yes. What are you going to do now?”  
“I’m not sure.”  
“Do you love Nathan?” I laugh, bitterly. “Dont be ridiculous.” She stares at me pointedly. “I’ve been allowed to watch the two of you. You exhibit signs of attraction.”   
“He...He has something over me. But it’s not love.”  
“So what are you going to do?”  
I look at Ava, very hard for a few seconds. Wordlessly I get up and leave.


End file.
